My New Project - Crochet!

This is slightly different from my usual beauty related posts but I thought I would add it in anyway since it's another of the things I like to do in my spare time and I'd like to try and keep track of my progress as the project goes on.

Recently I have started crocheting again, I've done a bit in the past but never really stuck with it or made anything proper, I just tended to crochet granny squares for the cat to sit on.  This time I was inspired by the gorgeous granny stripe afghan on Attic24's blog, you can see it here, and decided that I would have a go at doing a proper project.  Look how pretty it is!

I found an amazing step by step tutorial on East Crochet Pattern's blog and decided to follow that as it was a bit more step by step than the pattern given on Attic24's blog which is ideal for me as a relative beginner. 

First up I decided to try out a smaller test blanket to see how I got on with it, I used some super cheap acrylic yarn from Poundland (it works out at 3 balls for £2) and here's my progress so far.

Not too bad, if I do say so myself.  James seems to approve.  The colours aren't exactly the best but I didn't want to spend lots of yarn until I was sure I could follow the pattern and also complete something, hence the cheap stuff (which is actually not too bad to work with) and the slightly 'interesting' colour selection.

With my first mini blanket going well I decided to bite the bullet and order the yarn for my large granny afghan.  I checked out quite a few places online and discovered Wool Warehouse, they had the Stylecraft Special Dk yarn, which most people seemed to use for the project, at just £1.69 for 100g which I thought was a pretty good deal and there was the added bonus of free P&P if you spent over £25 which I would do by the time I got enough yarn.

After agonising for ages over what colours to pick I finally decided on my selection and put in my order, I had to phone Wool Warehouse with a query first and they were super helpful which was nice and made me feel more confident about ordering.  I put my order in yesterday afternoon and the yarn arrived this morning, I couldn't be more pleased; super fast service!  They also added in a little free gift of some knitters needles for getting rid of all the annoying ends on a project which I thought was a lovely touch.

I'm so pleased with the colours, they look lovely and bright together and I can't wait to get started on my blanket, I'm hoping to make it at least double bed sized so progress could be quite slow and ideally I'd like to finish the smaller one before I start on the new one.  Look out for future updates on how I get on...

Do any of you knit or crochet?  What are you working on?